DerbySoft targets independent hotels, after years of serving globals

It is check-in time for many hotels in search of a technology upgrade. That's the bet of DerbySoft, a seller of distribution connectivity software, launching its first tool for the independent hoteliers.

But the sales challenge is high. Many hoteliers in Europe may be scratching their heads and asking, "Who's DerbySoft?"

Until now, the Chinese-born company has focused on building custom software for the world's largest hotel chains, such as IHG, Marriott, and Hilton, with customized enterprise software that connects into their reservation systems and distributes inventory to online travel agencies and other channels.

Today DerbySoft enters a significantly different market, with a product it opens up globally and calls One. The product is aimed at independent hotels and small hotel groups that don't use a central reservation system (CRS) or a channel manager.

The name One refers to the platform's single sign-on that pulls together multiple bits of information into one workflow and a group dashboard. Its multi-property content management tool distributes the hotel's inventory dynamically to other tools, so that a revenue manager can avoid duplicate data-entry across separate systems.

To start, One includes a channel manager, a website builder, and an internet booking engine.

It is an open platform designed to interact with other tools. For example, at launch, it includes DerbySoft's own metasearch manager. But later this month the company plans to add connectivity to a major European hotel metasearch company tool via its platform.

Property management system (PMS) integration is a task for next year, with a hope of five or ten signed up by next summer.

The company is talking with other companies to integrate tools to enable hoteliers to comparison-shop and do competitive analysis by rate shopping. It plans to partner with revenue management tool providers, too.

The China card

Perhaps the most remarkable of One's modules is a WeChat manager. With DerbySoft's integration, a user of WeChat can see a hotel's marketing messages and book a stay directly via the app.

DerbySoft says it is the only hotel tech company that can enable independent hotels to market directly to the outbound Chinese market via the WeChat messaging app. (The reason? Unlike Western companies, it is a Chinese-registered company and is legally allowed to have a partnership with Tencent, the app's China-based parent company.)

As context, WeChat is a mobile app similar to WhatsApp. Its tricks range from messaging to financial services. It claims more than 800 million monthly users.

Marketing challenge

DerbySoft has almost no experience at "mass" marketing, having focused at enterprise clients until now.

The company plans to cope by marketing on the themes of simplicity and of getting a better handle on direct distribution, says André Baljeu, vice president, hotel platform.

DerbySoft says that its platform is a cost-effective way for hoteliers to manage their distribution.

Today, many hoteliers log into online travel agency extranets to manage distribution. But signing in to a centralized tool like One could provide hoteliers with a chance at grasping the bigger picture. There are no different screens to go for rooms or rates; and mapping rooms to different channels happens speedily, the company says.

DerbySoft also plans to undercut competitors on price. Given its success with enterprise sales, it believes it can afford to price its service at an aggressive rate, gaining volume organically.

To help its marketing, DerbySoft has tapped digital marketing agencies in Europe, such as London's Ayima.

The company is now building up its own marketing team, too, starting with a new hire as a director of regional marketing. It says it is shoring up its online travel agency partnerships for its channel manager by having recently brought on a director of strategic partnerships.

To enhance European growth, DerbySoft will open a German office in the next year or so. It expects to hire coders, too. It already has offices in Shanghai, Dallas, London, Beijing, and Tokyo.

In spring 2014, it received a $9 million Series D funding from venture capital firm DCM — a VC fund that, in turn, this summer raised a fresh $770 million from backers such as Asia’s Tencent, Baidu, and SoftBank.

This autumn, DerbySoft entered into a partnership with Amadeus, which will let hotels distribute their rates and inventory to most metasearch engines and online travel agencies through their connection to the Amadeus global distribution system.